


i see right through you

by tigermochaeyu



Category: TWICE (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, F/F, Fluff, Fluff and Angst, Happy Ending, Jeongyeon is a ghost, Light Angst
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-03-12
Updated: 2018-03-12
Packaged: 2019-03-30 09:52:36
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 13,303
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13949067
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/tigermochaeyu/pseuds/tigermochaeyu
Summary: In hindsight, Chaeyoung should’ve been more suspicious about the apartment.(Only tagged Major Character Death because Jeongyeon is a ghost I promise this story is super cute)





	i see right through you

**Author's Note:**

> This idea was given to me by nojamdoodles on twitter so THANK YOU FAM HERE YOU GO I HOPE YOU LIKE IT
> 
> I also want you to all be aware that there is a mention of an abusive relationship near the end of the story, so please be safe about your readings!
> 
> Also I made a playlist for this story if you’re interested in listening while you read: https://open.spotify.com/user/1233640484/playlist/7pVumWMsaVUbVzou7iBKBe?si=eC40iQf0QsK28I5bN3hUrQ

In hindsight, Chaeyoung should’ve been more suspicious about the apartment.

As an art student living in the big city, she would have taken anything she could get. So when a somewhat luxurious, fully furnished apartment in the center of Seoul with a ridiculously low rent pops up? She’s not about to ask question, and snatches up the ownership faster than Momo could say ‘jokbal’.

The landlord of the apartment complex had warned her of the rumors when she came in for moving day, saying that past residents had sworn up and down that the apartment was haunted, hence the low rent since no one would dare live in it. Chaeyoung had genuinely laughed at the man’s words, telling him that she would be okay. She was never the superstitious type, she could handle a few ridiculous rumors.

With a concerned look in his face, he handed her the keys and she trudged up the stairs with her first suitcase, slowly moving all of her boxes into the entryway until she had grabbed every last item. She walks into her kitchen to fill a glass with water, the landlord’s words playing in her head again and she laughs at the stupid superstitions.

“If there are any ghosts in my apartment,” Chaeyoung calls out with a laugh, filling her cup with water from the sink, “I welcome your company.”

“You shouldn’t be here.”

Chaeyoung turns from the sink to see a girl sitting on her couch, facing away from her. Her first thought is that someone snuck into her apartment to play tricks on her, but her second thought is she _probably_ should’ve listened to the landlord’s warning.

“Um.. hi?” Chaeyoung calls out, the girl not moving at the sound of her voice. “Yeah you’re kind of in my apartment, so if you could leave, that would be awesome.”

“Look, I lived here first buddy, so this place is mine,” the girl says, finally turns towards Chaeyoung and _oh._

Despite the fact that, with the sunlight pouring into the room, the girl is clearly transparent and her eyes are almost foggy and lifeless, Chaeyoung is ultimately distracted by how pretty the girl- no, the _woman_ in front of her is. Short, shaggy, blonde hair, sharp eyes, even sharper jawline; everything about her appearance was intriguing, even the transparency.

But Chaeyoung, ever the stubborn one and definitely not about to give up this prime real estate, shrugs and says, “Guess I’m your new roommate then.”

The spirit looks her up and down, seemingly judging her entire existence with her hazy eyes, before chuckling slightly. “You’re different, I’ll give you that.”

“Different? That’s a weird way to say Chaeyoung,” the shorter girl teases, and the spirit lets a small smile break out on her lips at the girl’s words. It’s odd, the fact that there’s a spirit of a dead girl in her house, and yet she still feels comfortable in her cold presence.

And she means _cold._ She’s about to invest in a space heater because heating and cooling bills are _expensive._

“Nice to meet you Chaeyoung, I suppose,” The spirit sort of sighs and looks to the side, almost like she’s disappointed in the way the other girl is reacting. Chaeyoung frowns, wondering if she crossed some sort of line (can you actually cross a line when it comes to ghosts?) but the spirit turns to Chaeyoung once again, a small grin on her lips as she says, “I’ll try to keep the haunting down to a minimum for you, sound good?”

“How about I let you use the TV and you don’t haunt me at all?” Chaeyoung smirks as she walks to the entryway and grabs her TV, setting it on the left-behind entertainment center and plugging it in with a victorious smile. “Paying an electric bill is already hard enough with a ghost flickering the lights all the time.”

The spirit laughs at her antics but nods nonetheless. “Yeah, yeah I can handle that. I can’t remember the last time I watched a good show.”

“I’ve got some older dramas on DVD you can watch, seems like something your poltergeist ass would enjoy,” Chaeyoung grabs her box of movies as she speaks, the teasing with the spirit way too natural, leaving a growing feeling of unease in Chaeyoung’s stomach. The spirit girl could probably kill her in her sleep and she’s insulting her, good job Chaeng.

The spirit girl smiles slightly before standing, walking towards the kitchen with a small salute of her fingers. “I’ll let you unpack in peace. I’ll be back for the TV when you’re done,” she says before walking through the wall, leaving Chaeyoung alone in her living room with one thought running through her mind.

‘What the fuck did I just get myself into?’

-

Chaeyoung huffs as the last emptied box is broken down and folded, laid into a pile with the other discarded boxes by the door. She thanks every god she can think of that she charged her bluetooth speaker the night before, because unpacking in complete silence would have been absolute hell.

She would catch her from time to time, the spirit. Watching her from different areas. She would disappear the moment their eyes meet, out of Chaeyoung’s view faster than a cheetah after an antelope. It amused her, partly because she’s being watched by a spirit that haunts her apartment and partly because the spirit is _shy._ It got a kick out of Chaeyoung every time it happened.

Sighing contentedly as she plops onto her couch, she turns the TV on (thankful that her cable service was set up ahead of time) before somewhat yelling, “You can come out now.”

The spirit sits in the chair beside the couch, lounging similarly to the way Chaeyoung is. The shorter girl laughs, how even in death the girl still seeks the most comfortable way to sit, but the other girl seems to think she’s mocking her and glares at her. “You got a problem?”

“Not at all,” Chaeyoung answers honestly, gesturing lazily to the way the spirit is sitting. “Just appreciating your laziness. Not like I’m not doing the exact same thing anyways.”

The spirit seems superstitious of her motives, but relaxes back into the chair nonetheless, and soon both girls have their eyes trained the TV. Chaeyoung isn’t paying much mind to what’s playing, her mind too busy running with the endless amount of questions bouncing around in her head. The spirit seems to notice, huffing out a breath of air that blows her bangs up wildly before muttering, “Ask.”

“What?” Chaeyoung asks, taken aback by the abruptness of the statement (or was it a question?). Not that she didn’t know what she was talking about, there’s a lot of questions she wants answered, but her surprise took her first.

“I know you’re dying to ask, so ask,” the spirit huffs again, tilting her head onto her shoulder to look over at Chaeyoung. The shorter girl thinks for a moment, debating the questions she has about the spirit; why she’s here, what happened to her, etc. But there’s one question that’s stuck in her head, dancing on the tip of her tongue and she can’t help but ask it.

“What’s your name?”

The spirit seems like she was expecting a different question, a sound coming out of her mouth before it’s cut off abruptly. She stares at Chaeyoung, jaw slackened slightly and eyes wide with unkempt surprise, and Chaeyoung has to hold back a chuckle at how taken aback she looks.

“You.. want to know my name?” The spirit asks slowly, as if making sure she heard Chaeyoung correctly.

“Well yeah,” the shorter girl shrugs, eyes trained on the spirit’s hazy ones. “If we’re going to be living together, I can’t just keep calling you ‘spirit’ or ‘poltergeist ass’.”

The spirit chuckles at Chaeyoung’s words, running a hand through her unruly hair. “Yeah.. yeah I suppose you’re right. It’s just..” The girl trails off, like a thought she had wasn’t supposed to be voiced, and shakes her head before turning back to Chaeyoung and giving a mock salute with her index and middle fingers. “Yoo Jeongyeon, poltergeist ass.”

Chaeyoung laughs loudly at her words, appreciating the happy grin on Jeongyeon’s face. It’s weird, having a ghost for a friend, but Chaeyoung thinks that she won’t mind too much if Jeongyeon appreciates her stupid humor like she herself does.

-

The landlord asks Chaeyoung a week later how she’s settling in. Chaeyoung can see the nervousness in his eyes, laughs loudly at his concern, and tells him so far so good before heading off to school.

-

“We’re friends, right?” Chaeyoung asks later that day when she gets home from school, shirt and skin marked with various colors of paint. Jeongyeon looks up from the book she’s reading (how she’s holding Chaeyoung’s books when she’s practically see through, who knows) and raises an eyebrow curiously at Chaeyoung.

“That is definitely not an actual question and definitely an ‘I want something’ kind of question,” Jeongyeon observes, looking back down at the page she’s reading.

“You’re free loading all my junk and I haven’t tried to cleanse the apartment with sage yet so it’s more of ‘you owe me’ kind of thing,” Chaeyoung points at Jeongyeon as she speaks, grabbing a bag of chips from her kitchen and plopping down on the couch at the opposite end of her spirit friends.

Jeongyeon sighs dramatically before bookmarking the page she’s reading and shutting the book, rolling her eyes as she looks at Chaeyoung. “Since you seem so fit to _use_ me, what do you want?”

“Don’t be like that,” Chaeyoung pouts, and holds back the grin threatening to break out on her face at the small blush that coats Jeongyeon’s cheeks (ghosts can blush, who knew?). “Think of it more as; if you help me out, I can stay here longer with you because I’ll actually be able to afford it.”

Jeongyeon seems to ponder Chaeyoung’s words for a moment, leaning forward and putting the book she was reading onto the coffee table before turning towards Chaeyoung. “I’m listening.”

“Wanna help me scare the shit out of the landlord so I can pay less on utilities?” Chaeyoung asks in an innocent tone and plops a chip into her mouth to feign nonchalance. Jeongyeon’s jaw slacks when she registers what Chaeyoung says, but a smirk quickly grows on her face as her words process.

“You want me to prank the landlord,” Jeongyeon leans back against the arm of the couch, smirk growing larger with each passing second. “I have truly underestimated you, Son Chaeyoung.”

“And how exactly do you know my full name?” Chaeyoung tilts her head curiously.

“I’m stuck here all day while you go to work or school, I snoop through your shit when I get bored enough,” Jeongyeon shrugs, and Chaeyoung would be mad if the girl wasn’t literally dead, so she shrugs in acceptance. “So, what are you thinking for this? I don’t think I can make the walls bleed but I can sure try.”

“Okay god no please, I’m not trying to clean that up afterwards,” Chaeyoung nearly gags at the thought of blood all over her walls and floor. “I was thinking, remember how I told you electric bills are already expensive without a ghost flickering them?”

Jeongyeon catches on immediately, laughing menacingly with Chaeyoung now that the two are on the same page. “You’re gonna cheat your way out of your electric bill, I love it.”

Chaeyoung bows dramatically in her seat as she thanks Jeongyeon, and the two begin the most simple plot to scare the shorter girl’s landlord, a feat that won’t even cause Jeongyeon to break a sweat considering the man can’t even talk about her haunted apartment without freaking out.

(The landlord ends up almost pissing himself when he walks into Chaeyoung’s apartment to see all of the lights and appliances flickering wildly. Chaeyoung just looks at Jeongyeon, her hand dematerializing in the outlet near the door and her face split with a shit eating grin, and has to bite the inside of her cheek to not laugh.

The landlord says he’ll pay her electric bills for the rest of her residency as long as he never has to come into this ‘god forsaken apartment’ ever again. She calls it a deal and he nearly trips over his feet as he runs out of the apartment.

Chaeyoung and Jeongyeon burst into laughter when the door closes behind him.)

-

“What do you do at night?”

Chaeyoung watches Jeongyeon look up from the book in her hands at her as she leans casually against the door frame of her bedroom. Bookmarking her page, she shuts her book before shrugging nonchalantly.

“Whatever seems fitting. It’s not like I can really sleep,” Jeongyeon says, opening her mouth to continue before shutting it again with a quizzical look on her face. “I actually don’t know if I can sleep, I’ve never tried.”

Chaeyoung hums in acknowledgement, crossing the apartment to sit on the couch with Jeongyeon. It’s been a month of living her with the spirit, and surprisingly it gets more and more comfortable to be around the other girl. The only thing that bugs her is how little she seems to know about the other girl when Jeongyeon knows so much more about her.

“Can I ask you some things?” Chaeyoung leans her head to the side against the back of the couch, legs curled against her chest as she looks at the spirit’s hazy eyes. Jeongyeon nods hesitantly, because despite the fact that they’re friends it’s like the other girl doesn’t want Chaeyoung to know anything about her. “How old are- were you, I guess?”

“Twenty one,” Jeongyeon says shortly, but a smile makes its way onto Chaeyoung’s face.

“Ah, so I can finally call you by your name, Jeongyeonnie,” Chaeyoung teases, and the older girl groans into her palms while Chaeyoung bursts into fits of laughter. Honestly, she wouldn’t be surprised if her neighbors thought she was insane by now with how much she sounds like she’s talking to herself. “What brought you to Seoul then?”

“A.. a lot of things, I guess,” Jeongyeon shrugs, curling into herself. Chaeyoung can tell she’s struck a nerve she wasn’t supposed to find, and quickly diverts the subject into a different direction as not to upset the older girl.

“Any hobbies?” Chaeyoung asks, and she can tell by the way Jeongyeon’s shoulders relax that she’s thankful for the change of topic.

“I used to do karaoke a lot with my friends,” Jeongyeon laughs embarrassedly. “My friends Nayeon and Jihyo would always pull me out of the apartment and to a karaoke bar down the street, and we would just get fat and sing our hearts out.” Jeongyeon chuckles again, finding humor in the distant memory, and Chaeyoung feels her heart grow soft at the sight of the older girl’s smile.

“What about you?” Jeongyeon asks, turning her attention back to Chaeyoung with a warm smile. “I only know you inside these walls, what’s the Son Chaeyoung out there like?”

“An art hoe,” Chaeyoung scoffs, and Jeongyeon laughs loudly at the bluntness of her own words. “I’m serious!” Chaeyoung yells with a laugh, “Momo and Tzuyu are always finding paint somewhere on me when we go out.”

“They your friends?” Jeongyeon asks with an amused smile when she finally stops laughing. “I’ve definitely heard you on the phone with Momo before, she sounds like an interesting person.”

“If you took the body of Aphrodite and the stomach of a hungry hungry hippo and combined them, you’d get Momo,” Chaeyoung laughs, thinking of how her best friend could eat an entire five course meal and still have perfectly chiseled abs. “Tzuyu is quieter most of the time, but she’s the most gorgeous and loyal person I know.”

“Sounds like you like them both a lot,” Jeongyeon teases suggestively, and Chaeyoung can’t help the bark of surprised laughter that bursts past her lips at the thought of liking Tzuyu or Momo _romantically._

“I’m pretty sure they would _both_ have problems with that prospect,” Chaeyoung says between laughs, and Jeongyeon looks like she’s about to ask what she means by that when her hazy eyes widen in realization.

“Ooooh,” Jeongyeon says slowly, and Chaeyoung can’t help but laugh harder when Jeongyeon joins in her sounds of mirth.

“Yeah. Love them to death, not a fan of third wheeling twenty four seven though,” Chaeyoung smiles at the thought of her best friends, and how she definitely doesn’t mind third wheeling when they’re both so cute with each other. Jeongyeon seems to understand exactly what she means, and Chaeyoung wonders if her friends Nayeon and Jihyo were together too.

“Thank you,” Jeongyeon says suddenly, and Chaeyoung’s eyebrows pull together in confusion, silently asking her to continue. Jeongyeon takes a second, a deep breath, runs a hand through her shaggy hair before speaking. “It’s just.. I’ve only ever shown myself to two other people, and they freaked out and asked me what happened to me. You’re just.. different. It’s nice to be treated normally for once.”

“Different,” Chaeyoung echoes in a small voice, her thoughts running rapidly through her brain about the people who treated this amazing person so thoughtlessly. She debates saying something to comfort the other girl, but after knowing Jeongyeon for a month she knows that’s not how the older girl works. Instead she settles for a small, teasing smile as she says, “That’s still a weird way to say Chaeyoung.”

Jeongyeon laughs loudly at the shorter girl’s words, a stark difference from the first time they had met and she said almost the exact same words. Chaeyoung laughs with her, a warm feeling spreading in her chest at the idea of the older girl appreciating her as not just a decent human being, but a friend.

-

A hand slamming down on her desk causes Chaeyoung to jump, her various brushes and pencils jostling from their positions at the shock. The shorter girl looks up to see her best friend, Dahyun, staring down at her with squinted eyes, as if trying to look deep into her soul.

“Spill,” Dahyun says, more like _demands_ , and Chaeyoung is completely out of the loop because she has no idea what the other girl is talking about.

“Spill what?” Chaeyoung asks slowly, curious as to what Dahyun wants from her. The older girl rolls her eyes and plops down backwards into the seat next to her, leaning her forearms against the back of the chair and her head atop of them.

“You’ve been ridiculously happy lately, so what is it?” Dahyun continues to gaze at her like she’s piercing through her soul and Chaeyoung can’t help but blush.

It’s been almost six months with Jeongyeon around, and Chaeyoung can’t help but feel.. different. Jeongyeon is an amazing person, despite the fact that she’s dead, and Chaeyoung catches herself glancing at the other girl more often than she’d like to admit-

Dahyun snaps her fingers a couple of times across Chaeyoung’s face, starting the shorter girl out of her thoughts. “Hey, where’d you go?”

Chaeyoung blushes even harder when she realizes she’s been caught in her own thoughts, stuttering out an apology to her best friend. “S-sorry I’ve just been.. caught up, I guess.”

“With what?” Dahyun makes a face at Chaeyoung’s words. “It’s not like you ever leave your apartment.”

Chaeyoung stays silent at her words, not having the heart to lie to her best friend but she can’t exactly tell Dahyun that she’s befriended the ghost that haunts her apartment. Dahyun, however, gathers a different opinion from her silence, her face splitting into a cheeky grin.

“Oh my god you’re seeing someone!”

Chaeyoung’s eyes widen in surprise as she looks at Dahyun, shaking her head aggressively in denial. Dahyun isn’t having it, poking at Chaeyoung’s sides excitedly. “Oh my god I can’t believe you didn’t tell me! Who is it? Is she cute?”

“First of all I’m not seeing someone!” Chaeyoung whisper shouts, trying to get Dahyun to stop shouting and attracting attention from other students in the studio. “Second of all, why would you assume it’s a girl?”

“Oh honey, you’re _way_ too good for a man,” Dahyun says seriously, and a second passes before the two best friends burst into laughter, leaning against one another for support.

“Well, you’re not wrong,” Chaeyoung sighs as her laughter subsides, wiping the tears from her eyes from laughing so hard. A few beats of silence pass, Dahyun leaning her head against Chaeyoung’s shoulder, before her soft voice enters Chaeyoung’s ears.

“You’ll let us meet her someday, right? Me, Momo, and Tzuyu?”

Chaeyoung bites her lip, knowing that even if she wanted to introduce her friends to Jeongyeon, she couldn’t. But for the sake of her best friends (and because she really does wish her friends could meet the short haired spirit in her apartment), she leans her head atop Dahyun’s and nods.

“Yeah, someday.”

-

“What did you want to do when you were.. you know.. alive?” Chaeyoung asks Jeongyeon one morning, picking awkwardly at a loose thread on her t-shirt and avoiding Jeongyeon’s eyes. The older girl looks at her and tilts her head in confusion, despite the tender smile on her face.

“Why do you always get so weird when you ask me about my life?” Jeongyeon jokes, but Chaeyoung doesn’t laugh because she can’t. She’s always been nervous about asking Jeongyeon questions about life before her death, telling herself that she’s afraid she’ll say the wrong thing or offend her in the process. In reality, it’s a much different reason. So she tells her.

“I uh.. I don’t want to be like the other people that have met you and like.. pry into your life where I shouldn’t,” Chaeyoung mumbles honestly, eyes trained in her lap. The look on Jeongyeon’s face softens significantly, leaning forward to take Chaeyoung’s hand before realizing that she can’t, and pulls her hand back awkwardly.

“Chaeng,” Jeongyeon says instead to garner the shorter girl’s attention, and Chaeyoung can’t help the way her breath hitches at the sound of the nickname from the older girl’s lips. She looks up slowly, meeting the hazy eyes that seem to grow warmer with every passing day. Jeongyeon flashes her a smile Chaeyoung’s never seen from the girl before, and her stomach does backflips while her heart pounds at the sight.

“You’re so much greater than anyone else I’ve ever met, in life and in death,” Jeongyeon says, sincerity dripping from her tone of voice. Chaeyoung’s heart melts at her words, smiling despite herself as a blush dusts her cheeks. “So stop being so nervous around me, okay?”

“Okay,” Chaeyoung whispers, her dopey smile still on her lips.

Jeongyeon leans back with a pleased smile on her face, but her mood shifts quickly as she shyly plays with her fingers. “I uh.. I always wanted to be a photographer.”

Chaeyoung lights up at her admission, sitting up excitedly in her seat. “No way! That’s so cool!”

Jeongyeon blushes as she looks back up at Chaeyoung. “You think so?”

“Yes!” Chaeyoung grins. “Anyone can take a photo, but it takes skill to capture a moment so beautifully.”

Jeongyeon blushes even more at her words, tucking a stray hair behind her ear. “I wasn’t that good. I just took a couple photos here and there.” Her words seem to remind her of a memory locked away, eyes widening in realization as she points to the floor by the hallway closet. “I think my box of photos is still under the floorboards.”

Chaeyoung leaps up immediately, grabbing a hammer from her closet (art is a violent task sometimes) and prying open the floorboard that Jeongyeon directs her to, almost like a child on Christmas. Once the floorboard is removed, Chaeyoung spots and grabs the shoebox beneath the floor and takes it with her to the couch.

“Wait, I didn’t even-“ Chaeyoung cuts herself off with a disappointed shake of her head. “Is it okay with you if I look at these?”

“Chaeng,” Jeongyeon says with a warm chuckle. “I told you, I trust you. Go on, open it.”

Chaeyoung smiles as she pulls the top off of the box, looking inside to see various types of photos, from polaroids to prints. She looks through them intently, paying attention to the various details of each and every photo. There are various photos of landscapes and cityscapes, all incredibly well taken. Chaeyoung smiles at the pictures of two girls that show up often in her photos, flipping one to face towards Jeongyeon.

“Nayeon and Jihyo?” Chaeyoung asks with a laugh, a picture of two girls walking towards the camera holding hands, excited smiles on their faces. One girl has light brown hair, just barely brushing past her shoulders, and the girl holding her hand has nearly black hair, thinned bangs falling into her eyes.

Jeongyeon smiles nostalgically at the photo, the memory probably flooding her mind. “I never thought I’d get to see them again,” she says almost wistfully, but not at all sad. Chaeyoung’s heart softens as she stares at the photo before laughing with a nod. “Nayeon loves Jihyo almost as much as she loves herself, and trust me that’s a hell of a lot.”

“Do you miss them?” Chaeyoung asks as she continues to look through the photos.

“Every day,” Jeongyeon answers honestly, before adding, “but it’s easier to bear with you.”

Chaeyoung flushes a deep red at her words, coughing awkwardly as she continues to look through the photos. Her heart skips a beat when she comes across a photo of Jeongyeon, a living Jeongyeon, short, red hair falling into her eyes and her brown eyes filled with so much life and love. A part of her wishes she could’ve met Jeongyeon while she was alive (for many different reasons), but this photo just solidifies this hopeless wish.

“Can I keep this?” Chaeyoung finds herself asking as she looks up at Jeongyeon, the spirit flushing as she nods. Chaeyoung smiles before tucking the photo into her pocket, continuing to look at the photos when she comes across one that causes her curiosity to spike.

“Who is this?” Chaeyoung asks, showing Jeongyeon the photo absentmindedly. Jeongyeon smiles at her before her eyes fall on the photo, and the atmosphere around them shifts dramatically (both figuratively and literally, because the room goes cold as ice when Jeongyeon’s face falls flat).

“No one important,” Jeongyeon says with a voice void of emotion, rising to her feet abruptly. “It’s getting late, you should probably head to work.”

“O-oh, okay,” Chaeyoung stutters, watching Jeongyeon walk through the wall and disappear from the apartment. The shorter girl’s eyes look down at the photo in hand; Jeongyeon with her arms around a man’s shoulders, smiling like the sun. Just from looking at the photo, Chaeyoung can tell whoever this person is was an important part of Jeongyeon’s life, which begs the question:

What happened with her and this guy?

-

Working at an art supply store is no fun whatsoever, but the slowness of her day allows Chaeyoung to let her mind wander. She thinks back to the morning and to Jeongyeon, how her entire demeanor changed at the presence of that photo. She feels almost bad for bringing up such a bad memory, and she wants nothing more to make it up to her.

So that afternoon, Chaeyoung sets out on a mission to cheer up Jeongyeon. After her shift ends at work, she makes her way to the electronics store down the street from apartment with one goal in mind: find a polaroid camera.

She finds a used one at a relatively cheap price and checks about twenty times to make sure the thing still works and then asks at least two workers what she needs to use it. With a bag full of film and camera in hand, she makes her way back to her ghostly friend at home.

“Jeongyeonnie?” Chaeyoung calls out when she enters her apartment, closing the front door behind her. It’s late afternoon when she arrives, the last light of the sky seeping in through her windows. Her brows knit together when she doesn’t find Jeongyeon on her couch, and nearly trips over herself when she turns into her kitchen and sees Jeongyeon sitting on the countertop.

“Jesus! Give a girl a warning next time, will you?” Chaeyoung shouts breathlessly, hand on her chest as she tries to calm down her rapidly beating heart.

“Sorry,” Jeongyeon mutters, and Chaeyoung can immediately tell how down the spirit is. Setting her backpack and bag from the store down on the ground, she hops up onto the counter across from Jeongyeon, tilting her head to the side slightly.

“What’s going on, Jeong?” Chaeyoung asks softly, watching the older girl sigh as she plays with her fingers the same way she did the night before. Chaeyoung stays quiet, knowing that the other girl will talk to her when she’s ready.

“I just feel bad for snapping at you earlier. It was stupid and I shouldn’t have shut you out before you left,” Jeongyeon’s hazy eyes are trained at her feet as she seems to curl in on herself. Chaeyoung can’t help but frown at how upset she looks over it, but then laughs once she realizes that they both assumed the other was upset with them.

“I thought you were mad at me!” Chaeyoung laughs when Jeongyeon looks up at her, eyes squinted in confusion. “I was so convinced all day that I did something to upset you by asking you about that picture, and you thought I was mad at you!”

Jeongyeon stares at her for a moment, blinking slowly to register what’s happening, before laughter starts bubbling from her throat. “I guess you’re right, that is pretty funny,” she says as her laughter grows, and soon the two of them are nearly in tears laughing over how stupid they are.

Chaeyoung calms down first, jumping down from the counter and grabbing the bag with the stuff she got Jeongyeon inside it. “You can hold things right? You always read my books and stuff so I just assumed you could.”

“I’m bound to this apartment so any material objects inside of it, I can touch,” Jeongyeon nods as she answers Chaeyoung. The shorter girl makes a mental note to ask Jeongyeon what she means by ‘bound to this apartment’ later, before pulling the polaroid camera out of the bag and showing it to Jeongyeon.

“I figured maybe you would like it if you could take some more photos,” Chaeyoung shrugs to feign nonchalance and to hide the fact that she’s nervous beyond belief. Jeongyeon’s eyes go wide at the sight of the camera, a smile blooming on her face as she hops off the counter and makes her way in front of Chaeyoung, hands hovering over the camera.

“Can I..?” Jeongyeon asks hesitantly, and Chaeyoung wants to laugh loudly because of course Jeongyeon is asking for permission to take the camera she bought for her. With a giggle the shorter girl nods, letting the spirit take the camera out of her hands.

“I got a lot of film for you too,” Chaeyoung lifts the bag in her hand up, and Jeongyeon almost looks like she’s about to cry with how happy she looks.

“You.. you really didn’t have to do this for me, Chaeyoung. You know that right?” Jeongyeon says with so much sincerity as she looks up at the shorter girl, eyes boring into Chaeyoung’s soul. The shorter girl waves a hand in front of her with a laugh, smiling brightly at Jeongyeon.

“I know, but you’ve been a really good friend to me so it’s the least I can do,” Chaeyoung says, still smiling at Jeongyeon albeit much shyer than a moment before. Jeongyeon flashes her the softest of smiles and Chaeyoung has to look away before her heart combusts. “Now c’mon. I’ll be your muse.”

Jeongyeon smiles and nods in agreement, telling Chaeyoung different places in the apartment to sit and different ways to pose for the camera. Each shot comes out much better than Chaeyoung could ever create, and she voices her praise every chance she gets, causing Jeongyeon to blush harder with every compliment.

For the last shot before the daylight leaves, Jeongyeon has Chaeyoung sit in front of the window, and just tells her to look out at the city in whatever pose she chooses. The shorter girl pulls her feet up onto the windowsill, leaning her body against the glass and brings her hand up to play with the ends of her hair. She’s not really trying to look artsy or anything, just doing what feels natural.

The click and whir of the polaroid camera alerts her that Jeongyeon has taken the photo, and turns to the older girl with expectant eyes. She watches Jeongyeon shake the picture aggressively until it develops, looking at it with a slightly slack jaw and sparkling eyes.

“Let me see!” Chaeyoung whines as she stands from the windowsill, and Jeongyeon wordlessly turns the picture around for the younger girl to see and _oh._

“I.. that.. wow,” Chaeyoung settles on, at a loss for words at how fantastic the photo of her looks. The lights of the city give it an almost grainy texture, and her silhouette looks stunning against the city glow. “I really did not give you enough credit. This is.. _you’re_ amazing.”

Jeongyeon blushes deeply at Chaeyoung’s praise, muttering a quiet thank you to the shorter girl. Chaeyoung just smiles at the older girl, taking the polaroid and sticking it onto her fridge so she never forgets about this moment, with Jeongyeon happier than she’s ever seen her and the way Chaeyoung’s heart beats when she sees Jeongyeon smile.

“Tell me,” Jeongyeon says quietly from the front room, still smiling giddily at the camera in her hands. “If you weren’t an artist, what would you do?”

“Well uh,” Chaeyoung blushes, picking at her fingernails nervously, “I always wanted to be a singer. I used to write lyrics and melodies when I was bored, but I never thought I was cut out for it so I stopped.”

“Yeah?” Jeongyeon smiles at her, and Chaeyoung blushes even harder as she nods in agreement. “That’s so cool! Can I see something you wrote?”

“I uh.. yeah,” Chaeyoung stutters, moving to her bookshelf to grab a small red notebook buried between the hardcover books. She flips halfway through the book before folding the notebook open and setting it on the table. “I wrote that after I graduated high school.”

“ _’Alone’_ ,” Jeongyeon mutters the title, her eyes raking over the lyrics with rapt attention. After a few moments of silence, a small laugh of disbelief passes Jeongyeon’s lips. “Chaeng these are incredible! Why on earth did you think you weren’t cut out for this?”

“I mean, I don’t really have the money to rent a studio so it’s kind of hard,” Chaeyoung shrugs nonchalantly. Jeongyeon hums in understanding, handing the notebook back to Chaeyoung with a proud smile.

“One of these days you’ll be a star, you’ll see,” Jeongyeon says with such conviction that a small part of Chaeyoung can’t help but believe her, the shorter girl blushing as she thanks her for believing in her.

-

It’s been almost a year since Chaeyoung moved into her apartment and befriended the ghost haunting it. She had teasingly calling Jeongyeon ‘Casper the Friendly Ghost’ considering she’s probably the nicest spiritual entity Chaeyoung will ever meet in her life, but Jeongyeon told her that if she called her that again she would indeed find a way to make the walls bleed.

She doesn’t really expect much going to the coffee shop down the street from her apartment, maybe a few hours of cramming for her physics final and a few cups of bitter coffee to keep her awake. Maybe taking a few moments to people watch and come up with ridiculous stories about people’s lives as she takes breaks between studying. Then heading back to her apartment and eating cheap ramen while watching JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure with Jeongyeon.

What she doesn’t expect (in fact, it’s the last thing she _ever_ would have expected), is to see Nayeon and Jihyo sitting in the corner of the coffee shop across from one another.

Chaeyoung stops right where she is near the entrance of the shop, can’t help but stare at the two older women curiously. They look.. absolutely heartbroken. Chaeyoung would almost assume that the two of them had broken up right then and there but Nayeon’s hand held tightly in Jihyo’s takes that idea out of her head immediately. But God.. the look of pure devastation on Nayeon’s face makes her want to comfort the girl.

The girl that she doesn’t actually know. That _definitely_ doesn’t know her.

She realizes that she probably looks creepy, staring at them, but Jihyo’s eyes catch hers in a casual once-over of the coffee shop, her eyes squinting at Chaeyoung in suspicion. Chaeyoung feels the blood leave her face in fear, turning to either get in line or leave or something, but Jihyo points at her and beckons her over with a finger. Swallowing nervously, she slowly makes her way across the coffee shop and stands beside Nayeon and Jihyo, who are both looking at her tiredly.

“You’re staring,” Jihyo says flatly, obviously not in the mood to deal with someone like Chaeyoung. The younger girl gulps, and something about the situation makes her wonder if the reason their so upset is because of Jeongyeon.

She realizes that it might have to do with her death, and she realizes she doesn’t even know when Jeongyeon died.

“S-sorry you just-“ Chaeyoung coughs nervously, swallows, “you just look like someone I know.”

Jihyo nods once, waves her hand to dismiss Chaeyoung from their presence. Normally, Chaeyoung would be out of there immediately, running with her metaphorical tail between her legs and never bothering them again. But some unknown urge to say something to them possesses her, and she finds herself turning back to Jihyo with desperate eyes.

“Don’t ask me how I know this, but Jeongyeon loves you guys so much,” Chaeyoung says, her voice almost a whisper as she mentions their former best friend. Nayeon, who had been silent almost the entire time, is up on her feet in an instant, eyes furious as she steps into Chaeyoung’s space.

“Who the fuck do you think you are, huh?” Nayeon asks, poking Chaeyoung in the chest aggressively. “You think it’s funny? To come in here on the anniversary of our friend’s death and say shit like that? Well?!”

“I-I promise I’m not trying to be funny!” Chaeyoung stutters, her hands up in surrender. Jihyo tries to pull Nayeon away from Chaeyoung but the older girl keeps pressing into her.

“Who the hell are you and how the fuck do you even know her name? How do you know us?” Nayeon nearly spits at her and Chaeyoung knows they’ll think she’s fucking insane but the only way to get Nayeon to not kill her is to tell the absolute truth.

“My name’s Chaeyoung and s-she told me,” Chaeyoung whimpers, curling into herself to hide herself from Nayeon’s attack. 

But it doesn’t come.

Both girls are absolutely frozen in front of her for a moment, until Jihyo puts her hand on Chaeyoung’s shoulder and gently forces her into the chair next to them. Nayeon grumbles something about Chaeyoung lying but sits down nonetheless.

“What do you mean ‘she told you’? There’s no way she’s alive because we saw her body and helped put into the ground two years ago so tell us the absolute truth,” Jihyo asks sternly, and Chaeyoung swallows nervously as she prepares to tell them her story.

“I-I moved into her old apartment. I don’t know why but she’s still there, haunting the place,” Chaeyoung says quietly, trying not to attract any more attention from the people around them after Nayeon tried to fight her.

“This is absolute bullshit,“ Nayeon rolls her eyes, “it’s obvious she’s lying!”

Chaeyoung, in an attempt to get them to believe her, digs into her pocket where she keeps the polaroid of Jeongyeon and plants it on the table. She watches Nayeon’s eyes widen in shock while Jihyo picks up the picture slowly with shaky hands.

“I took this photo,” Jihyo whispers, looking at it like it’s an ancient relic. “She hid it under her floorboards.”

“She showed me where to find them,” Chaeyoung nods slowly. “That’s how I know who you two are. From her photos.” Chaeyoung lets out a small breath of laughter before continuing, “She told me that Nayeon-unnie loves you more than she loves herself.”

A watery laugh leaves Nayeon’s lips, a single tear streaming down her cheeks. “She always gagged at us when we were being cute.” Nayeon vaguely gestures to Jihyo’s hand, and Chaeyoung notices the beautiful ring on her finger, the older girl saying, “She wasn’t wrong though.”

“Look, I know it doesn’t make any sense but.. come by her old apartment,” Chaeyoung says softly, looking between the older girls. “I don’t know if you’ll be able to see her but I can.. I can try my best to help you guys get closure.”

Jihyo and Nayeon look into each other’s eyes, having a silent conversation while Chaeyoung awkwardly plays with her fingers beside them, trying not to invade their privacy any more than she already has, before Jihyo turns back to her and nods tersely.

“Lead the way,” Jihyo says, and the three girls rise to their feet to head towards the youngest girl’s apartment.

-

The three girls walk into Chaeyoung’s apartment, Chaeyoung haphazardly throwing her keys onto the counter because she knows it annoys Jeongyeon and-

“Chaeng what did I tell you about..” Jeongyeon trails off as her eyes fall on Chaeyoung and the two girls behind her. Her eyes fill with tears as she looks at her friends, before looking back to Chaeyoung. “Why are they here?”

“They were about to kill me for staring at them and they wouldn’t believe me about you being here so..” Chaeyoung trails off, noticing the weird looks she’s getting from Jihyo and Nayeon from the corner of her eye.

“They can’t see me,” Jeongyeon says, a level of sadness in her voice that implies she knew this. “No one I knew when I was alive can see me. I tried appearing to them when they came to take my things, but they can’t see me.”

“Well then they’re going to think I’m fucking insane talking to absolutely nothing,” Chaeyoung huffs, runs a hand through her short locks frustratedly.

“Well you’re not wrong,” Jihyo mutters, looking to Nayeon like they’re looking for a fast way out. Chaeyoung sees Jeongyeon sigh, tears building in her eyes as she looks to Chaeyoung with something akin to defeat in her eyes.

“Tell them 3mix is the best mix,” Jeongyeon nearly whispers.

“Why the fuck would I-“

“Please, Chaeyoung,” Jeongyeon nearly begs, saying the shorter girl’s name so desperately that Chaeyoung can’t help but nod slowly.

She turns to Nayeon and Jihyo, the former looking like she’s about to murder Chaeyoung for playing with their feelings, and swallows nervously. “She says ‘3mix is the best mix’.”

A beat of silence passes, a fear like ice crawling through Chaeyoung’s veins, when suddenly Jihyo bursts into tears, nearly collapsing into Nayeon’s arms. The older girl holds up Jihyo in her arms, but tears steadily track down her cheeks as well. Chaeyoung looks to Jeongyeon, seeing tears fall from her eyes as she smiles softly at her friends.

“She really is here,” Jihyo whispers between cries, desperately looking around the room to see her old friend.

“You can’t see her,” Chaeyoung hates that she has to tell her this, hates the disappointment fall on Jihyo’s face. “She said people who knew her when she was alive can’t see her anymore.”

“But she can hear us right?” Nayeon asks, and Chaeyoung nods in affirmation. “Jeong I.. I’m so sorry I didn’t listen to you.. I-I’m so sorry I didn’t believe you w-when you told me you were scared and I’m so s-sorry we argued before you d-d-died.”

Nayeon can barely speak between her sobs by the time she finishes speaking and Chaeyoung can’t help the tears that fall from her cheeks when she hears about what happened between the best friends. Jeongyeon sniffs loudly, laughing lightly as she tells Chaeyoung, “Tell her I’ve never held a grudge when it comes to her. Not in life, not in death. She blames herself for my death but I would never blame her for what happened. It wasn’t her fault and she doesn’t deserve that burden to bear.”

Chaeyoung reiterates Jeongyeon’s words to Nayeon, and the girl cries harder as she nods, whispering how much she loves Jeongyeon as her body shakes with tears.

“Tell Jihyo she was the best little sister I never had. Tell her not a day goes by that I wonder how college went for her, for both of them. Tell her that she deserves the happiness she feels with Nayeon, even if it did make me want to vomit every time I saw them kiss,” Jeongyeon continues as she cries, rising off of the couch to stand beside Chaeyoung.

The younger girl wishes she could hold the spirit’s hand as she tells Jihyo her words, but when the older woman wraps her arms around Chaeyoung and holds her close against her chest, sputtering thank you’s from her quivering lips, Chaeyoung thinks it’s the closest she can get to touching Jeongyeon and hugs back just as hard.

“Tell them I love them please, and that I miss them so much,” Jeongyeon nearly whispers.

“She says she loves you both, and she misses you both every single day,” Chaeyoung says into the crook of Jihyo’s neck, feeling Nayeon wrap her arms around the both of them tightly. The three weep together, Nayeon and Jihyo for their lost friend and Chaeyoung just from witnessing this moment. She doesn’t think she’s worthy of seeing this moment between Jeongyeon and her friends, but then again she supposes it couldn’t even happen without her as the medium.

They part from their grasp, Jihyo taking a deep, shuddering breath as she reaches for Nayeon’s hand, their fingers intertwining reflexively like they probably have been doing for years. “Thank you, Chaeyoung, for this. I’m really sorry we were so harsh to you earlier.”

“No I understand, if a friend of mine died and some stranger told me they knew their ghost I’d probably try to punch them out too,” Chaeyoung gives a watery laugh, Nayeon chuckling along with her behind a guilty smile.

Jihyo asks Chaeyoung for her phone, quickly inputting both hers and Nayeon’s phone numbers before giving the device back to the shorter girl. “Please stay in touch. Not just as Jeongyeon’s friend but a friend of ours as well.”

Chaeyoung takes the phone back with a look of awe in her eyes, amazed that these two would want to even continue to befriend her after the emotional trauma she put them through. Nayeon must see it, chuckling lightly as she says, “Jeongyeon always had the best taste in friends. If even her ghost trusts you, we do too.”

Chaeyoung nods slowly, a small smile blooming on her lips as she thanks them for trusting her. They wave her off, giving her another hug to show their gratitude. The air between them feels lighter, and she can even tell Jeongyeon feels better after the interaction.

Jihyo and Nayeon leave, with one final goodbye to the friend that they cannot see, and when the door closes behind them Chaeyoung turns to Jeongyeon.

“I’m so sorry, I didn’t know they couldn’t see-“

“Please don’t apologize,” Jeongyeon says softly, sniffling once as she wipes the remaining moisture from her cheeks. “That was.. No one has ever done anything like that for me before. I feel.. so much lighter after getting to see them, to hear them one last time.”

Chaeyoung blushes, looks down at the ground as she nods, a thought crossing her mind as she looks back into Jeongyeon’s hazy eyes and says, “They said it’s been two years since you’ve died.”

Jeongyeon nods solemnly, motioning for Chaeyoung to sit down on the couch. The shorter girl complies, sitting down and watching as Jeongyeon takes the seat next to her. “I think it’s about time I told you what happened.”

Chaeyoung’s eyes widen, putting her hands in front of her and shaking them along with her head. “No, no it’s totally fine if you don’t want to. You just saw your friends for the first time in years and you’ve gone through a lot and-“

“Chaeng,” Jeongyeon cuts her off with a short, amused laugh, shutting the younger girl up immediately. “You’ve been the best friend I could have ever asked for during all of this. You mean so much more to me then you realize. Let me tell you what happened.”

Chaeyoung stutters for a few moments. She doesn’t think she can handle hearing what happened to Jeongyeon, doesn’t think she can hear about her death, about whatever it was that caused her so much grief that she couldn’t even move on. Jeongyeon is stuck here, between life and death, and Chaeyoung doesn’t think her heart is ready to hear it.

It strikes her then, how much she really cares about Jeongyeon. How much the older girl means to her. She recalls Dahyun’s words from all those months ago, about how she herself seemed happier. She realizes now that it’s because of Jeongyeon, that her presence in Chaeyoung’s life has made her so much happier, brighter, and she can’t bear to imagine a world without her.

(She supposes it already is a world without her, considering the fact that she’s dead.)

“I appreciate you trusting me,” Chaeyoung says softly, looking down at her fingers as she plays with them nervously, “and I appreciate your friendship, but I don’t think I can hear that right now.”

Jeongyeon gives away no emotion, but Chaeyoung knows she’s surprised just because of how much time they’ve spent together. The small twitch of her eyebrow gives Jeongyeon away, but she asks instead in a soft voice, “Why is that?”

“Because..” Chaeyoung debates lying, telling her she’s tired and wouldn’t be able to concentrate, but that would merely delay the inevitable. With nervousness coursing through her veins, she takes a deep breath and continues. 

“Because you mean so much more to me than you did the first day I met you. You’re someone I confide in, someone I trust, someone I care about.. and you’re my friend. You’re my friend and you’re so much more important to me than you could ever understand. So to hear that, to hear what happened to you after seeing how broken your friends are without you, living through that pain knowing what happened to you.. I can’t do it. Not right now at least.”

Tears are welling in Chaeyoung’s eyes once again as she finishes speaking. Hastily, she sniffs loudly as she wipes the moisture from her eyes. A loud, heavy breath leaves her lips as she looks to the ceiling, trying to stop more tears from coming and trying to avoid Jeongyeon’s gaze.

A book suddenly lands on her leg, and when she looks down she realizes Jeongyeon is holding the book against her thigh. It dawns on Chaeyoung that this is the closest Jeongyeon can get to touching her, and a watery laugh leaves her lips as a few tears fall at the sentiment.

“I understand. Thank you for being honest with me,” Jeongyeon says, squeezing the paperback lightly over her thigh to show her truth. Just the idea of Jeongyeon being able to touch her causes Chaeyoung’s heart to beat erratically, sniffling as she nods towards Jeongyeon.

She falls asleep that night wondering what it would’ve been like to know Jeongyeon’s touch.

-

The next morning, Chaeyoung is blissfully walking down the street towards school, bobbing her head along to the music pouring into her headphones, when a flash of a person in front of her causes her to stop and flinch, afraid of running into the person. When she looks up, she’s face to face with a shocked Jeongyeon, looking around the street confusedly.

“ _Jeong?_ ” Chaeyoung whispers in shock when she sees her ghostly friend standing in front of her, looking around to see a scarce amount of people walking up and down the street. Not taking any chances, she nods her head towards the alleyway nearby, walking calmly to not draw attention towards herself. Jeongyeon follows her as they walk behind a large dumpster, the shorter girl pulling out her earphones and looking at the spirit with wide eyes.

“What the hell are you doing here? I thought you couldn’t leave the apartment?” Chaeyoung whisper-shouts as she unplugs her earbuds and stuffs them into her pocket, her mind racing and coming to a complete halt simultaneously.

“I have absolutely no idea,” Jeongyeon says, her hands buried in her shaggy, blonde hair. “I’ve tried leaving the apartment dozens of times in the last two years and I’ve always been stuck.”

“Oh god okay,” Chaeyoung whispers, running a hand through her hair as she thinks of what to do. “Just.. just shadow me, okay? Come to class with me, and we can figure it out when we get home. Just don’t let anyone know you’re here.”

Jeongyeon nods in agreement, and Chaeyoung continues her walk to school with an odd level of anxiety pumping through her veins. She knows no one can see Jeongyeon, not unless she wants them to, but if she herself slips up she’ll look absolutely insane to those around her. With a deep breath, she pushes those thoughts out of her head, and reaches campus without incident.

“Headphones,” Jeongyeon mutters as they walk down the hallway littered with various students making all sorts of creations. Chaeyoung just glances Jeongyeon’s way, raising her eyebrows just slightly in a way that the girl beside her will interpret as ‘what the fuck?’ before continuing to walk down towards her studio classroom.

“Headphones. Put them in so that if you accidentally talk to me, it looks like you’re on the phone,” the spirit clarifies, and Chaeyoung lets out an impressed hum as she digs into her pocket, pulling her headphones back out and plugging them in. It’s strange, to walk around with headphones yet not listen to any music, but it’s a sacrifice she must make to retain her sanity.

Finally reaching her studio desk, she plops down and drops her backpack onto the ground beside her, groaning lightly as she lets her situation wash over her. She has a ghost following her through her every day life and she’s bound to slip up, or someone is bound to notice her unusual behavior, and she can feel the dread sinking into her bones.

She’s about to turn towards Jeongyeon and ask how she’s holding up, when Dahyun happily plops down in the seat beside Chaeyoung and smiles widely. Chaeyoung swallows once, preparing to live a lie in front of her best friend, before smiling cheekily at Dahyun.

“Where’ve you been, short stack?” Dahyun teases, ruffling Chaeyoung short locks playfully. The shorter girl grumbles about how Dahyun never listens when she says not to touch her hair, but her best friend just smiles at her playfully. “I’ve missed hanging out with you outside of class. What’s got you so busy?”

“Oh you know just uh..” Chaeyoung trails off, trying to think of any possible believable lie that Dahyun would accept, quickly muttering out, “just working and hanging out at home. Trying to study for my upcoming exams and stuff.”

“ _Or,_ ” Dahyun says in a tone that Chaeyoung knows and recognizes all too well. The way she draws out the word suggestively and the way her eyebrows raise are all Chaeyoung needs to know that she’s about to be thoroughly embarrassed. “Or you’re hanging out with that girl you’ve been seeing behind our backs.”

Chaeyoung chokes on her own spit, leaning forward to cough up a lung in embarrassment because Jeongyeon, the spirit that haunts (haunted?) her apartment and that she may or may not be developing tragic feelings for, is standing right there. And she’s.. laughing?

“I’m uh.. actually on the phone with her right now,” Chaeyoung says sheepishly, not denying Dahyun’s implications but not exactly saying she’s correct. Plus, Jeongyeon did say to use the headphones to pretend that she’s on the phone with her.

“No way! Oh god, she totally just heard me, didn’t she?” Dahyun somehow turns a shade paler at the thought of embarrassing her best friend. She moves to grab for Chaeyoung’s unused headphone but the shorter girl is faster, snatching it out of her hand.

“You’re already embarrassing me, I’m not about to give you that power,” Chaeyoung jokes to cover up her paranoia, and Dahyun pouts but accepts her words nonetheless. From the corner of her eye, she can see Jeongyeon smiling down at her with a teasing smirk, and Chaeyoung wants nothing but to roll her eyes at the other girl.

“Tell her I like her already,” Jeongyeon says with a laugh, and Chaeyoung thanks every god she knows that Jeongyeon isn’t saying anything about the fact that Dahyun thinks they’re dating.

“I’ll have to check her lapse in judgement later, but she says she likes you,” Chaeyoung says, actually rolling her eyes this time at Jeongyeon’s behavior.

“You should’ve known she had poor judgement when she started seeing you,” Dahyun teases, and Chaeyoung whines as she smacks her best friend on the arm for making fun of her. Jeongyeon is having the time of her life, poorly holding in her laughter at the best friends’ antics, and Chaeyoung can’t help the way her heart skips a beat at the sound.

“Oh! Tzuyu and Momo wanted to get lunch today with us. Do you think your _girlfriend_ will be okay with us taking you away from her for a few hours?” Dahyun teases, and Chaeyoung blushes heavily again because Jeongyeon is _right there_ laughing at her agony.

“She’s clingy but I think she’ll manage,” Chaeyoung manages to fire back, ignoring the sounds of offense coming from Jeongyeon as Dahyun cheers and wraps her arms around her shoulders. The pair are quick to quiet themselves once they arrange their plans, turning to their canvases and beginning their projects.

“I wish I could draw you,” Chaeyoung says to Jeongyeon, Dahyun gagging in the corner at how disgustingly cute Chaeyoung is being with her ‘girlfriend’. Jeongyeon, however, just smiles softly, sitting on the table beside Chaeyoung and mutters, “So draw me.”

A smile blooms on Chaeyoung’s face as well as a small blush, pulling the slightly worn polaroid of Jeongyeon that she has in her pocket out as a false muse. Dahyun catches a glimpse of it, her eyes widening in surprise as she looks between the picture and Chaeyoung. After a full minute of staring, Dahyun whistles lowly, muttering something about Chaeyoung’s game before turning back to her canvas.

Chaeyoung just looks up at Jeongyeon, who’s still staring down at her with that soft smile from earlier, and shakes her head playfully before beginning her sketch. Maybe Dahyun’s big mouth wasn’t too bad sometimes.

-

“So you’re telling me,” Momo starts as she chews her mouthful of food. Tzuyu looks at her girlfriend in faux disgust, covering her mouth with her hand while Momo just rolls her eyes at the taller girl. Chaeyoung and Dahyun are seated beside each other across from them, laughing at the couple’s antics, while Jeongyeon sits up by the window beside the booth, watching Chaeyoung interact with her friends with a warm smile on her face.

Momo finally swallows her food and Tzuyu uncovers her mouth with her hand, allowing her to speak again. “You’re telling me that Chaeyoung bagged a ten? And we haven’t met her yet?”

“Right! The absolute disrespect I feel in this house!” Dahyun shouts, haphazardly throwing her hands into the air and almost smacking Chaeyoung in the face. “Show them the picture in your pocket!” She shouts at Chaeyoung, and the short girl blushes under the eyes of her best friends.

“You carry a picture of her in your pocket?” Momo asks with a dramatic ‘aw’. “That’s so-“

“-Disgusting,” Tzuyu finishes for her, earning a light slap over the head from Dahyun.

“You keep your mouth shut. You may look terrifying but we all know that both of your lock screens are Momo’s face and/or body,” Dahyun scolds her, and Chaeyoung revels in the deep blush that grows on Tzuyu’s face. Momo coos at her girlfriend, planting a sloppy kiss on her cheek and telling her that she loves her even if she is a softie.

Dahyun demands the picture again and Chaeyoung sighs, pulling the polaroid from her pocket and handing it to Tzuyu and Momo. Momo’s eyes widen in shock, looking at Chaeyoung and mutter, “Damn, baby beast _does_ have game!”

Chaeyoung just buries her face into her hands, knowing that Jeongyeon is sitting by the window laughing at her misery, and it especially sucks because she has to keep pretending that Jeongyeon is _something_ to her without being able to explain to the other girl that it’s just her friends and their assumptions. 

“How did you meet her?” Tzuyu asks, handing the small polaroid back to Chaeyoung with care, knowing it has to mean something special to her if it’s always in her pocket.

“She lives in my apartment building,” Chaeyoung lies easily, because _technically_ it isn’t a lie. “She uh.. greeted me, I guess, when I first moved in.”

She can hear Jeongyeon snort by the window because the two of them know exactly how Jeongyeon greeted her when they first met. Chaeyoung allows herself to laugh slightly, letting Jeongyeon know that she’s not alone in thinking it was a funny situation.

“What’s she like?” Momo asks with a mouthful of food again, and Tzuyu just puts her face into her hands at how embarrassing her girlfriend is at times. Chaeyoung smiles at the pair, always knowing that despite how strange they are together, no one else could possibly be better for the other.

“She’s.. she’s incredible,” Chaeyoung says honestly, because even though she’s pretending that Jeongyeon is her girlfriend it doesn’t mean that every word that comes out of her mouth isn’t the absolute truth. “She’s so kind and helpful, she loves photography, she hates when we argue, she cares so much about her friends.. about me.”

Chaeyoung lifts her eyes slightly to meet Jeongyeon’s hazy ones, noting how soft they are in the low lighting of the restaurant. “I didn’t think I could ever care about someone as much as I care about her.”

Tzuyu and Dahyun fake gag while Momo coos at how cute Chaeyoung sounds talking about her ‘girlfriend’, but Chaeyoung’s eyes are trained on Jeongyeon’s. Jeongyeon stares back with just as much intensity, her eyes shimmering as she flashes the shorter girl a small smile, a blush blooming on her cheeks.

“That was absolutely disgusting, I love it,” Dahyun teases, and the rest of Chaeyoung’s time with her friends is spent catching up and laughing freely. But no matter what she does, Jeongyeon’s eyes stay trained on Chaeyoung for the rest of the night.

-

Chaeyoung sighs with relief when she makes it into her apartment, setting her keys down on the counter gently and dropping her backpack on the ground-

“Did you mean it?” Jeongyeon asks softly, Chaeyoung looking over her shoulder at the spirit and how she’s standing. Shifting on her feet, playing with her fingers, being incredibly shy in general. “What you said back there, did you mean it?”

Chaeyoung debates lying, but it’s not like it would work considering how well Jeongyeon has learned to read her. Plus, she would just be lying to herself, considering how much she truly does care for the taller girl. Instead, she sighs softly, carding her fingers through her short hair. “Yeah, I did.”

Jeongyeon nods subconsciously, eyes roaming the floor for a few moments before she blurts out, “I want to tell you.” Chaeyoung raises her eyebrows in confusion, Jeongyeon taking a deep breath to compose herself. “How I died, I want to tell you. Right now.”

Chaeyoung, despite the worry and apprehension crawling up her chest at the idea of hearing how the girl in front of her, the girl she cares so much about, died, but nods instead. Jeongyeon gestures to the couch, and the two facing one another while Jeongyeon’s fingers clasp together in her lap.

“Okay..” Jeongyeon breathes out, taking a moment to collect her thoughts. “Before I died, I was dating this guy. The guy from the picture.” Chaeyoung nods in acknowledgement. “He seemed perfect. Always taking me out and buying me little gifts and flowers, calling or texting me all the time. I thought he was the sweetest guy, I fell hard for him and I fell fast, so I moved to Seoul to be closer to him.”

Chaeyoung nods again, an odd sense of resentment filling her chest at the way Jeongyeon talks about the guy she was with. But she stomachs her feelings for her friend, and listens intently as she continues. “Nayeon liked him because he made me happy, but Jihyo had always seemed on the fence. Said there was something about him that she didn’t like, but she could never pinpoint it. Naturally, I didn’t listen, and he and I dated for about a year.”

Jeongyeon’s breathing starts to get shaky, and Chaeyoung wants nothing but to hold her friend and be there for her. “Near the end of our relationship, I started to notice what it was that Jihyo was talking about. He became possessive, quick to anger when I wasn’t there when he called for me, other behaviors that I didn’t like. So I ended it, knew that I would be better without it despite how terrified I was to confront him.”

“A week after we broke up, he started calling me and texting me, begging me to take him back. The more I ignored him, the more he did it, and his persistence grew too. He started to threaten me, told me that if he couldn’t have me, no one could.” Jeongyeon’s voice is fragile now, a single tear escaping her eyes as she continues. “I told Nayeon that I was scared for my own safety, and she didn’t realize how serious I had been, saying I was just being paranoid. We got in a heated argument over it and..” Another tear falls. “It was the last time we spoke.”

Chaeyoung thinks back to the night Nayeon and Jihyo came back to the apartment, how Nayeon was sobbing as she apologized for not believing Jeongyeon, and her heart breaks even more than it had the day of as she begins to understand why.

“I was dead the next morning,” Jeongyeon says flatly, sniffling once to keep her composure. “Somehow he had made a duplicate key to my apartment and snuck in, suffocated me in my sleep. I woke up with police officers surrounding me, but none of them knew I was there because I was..” Jeongyeon trails off, a few more tears escaping her eyes. Chaeyoung can’t stop herself from crying either, choking back a few sobs at hearing her friend’s story.

“Jeong, I.. I’m so sorry,” Chaeyoung manages between tears and, in her emotional state, acts without thinking, reaching over into Jeongyeon’s lap and grabbing her hand-

Wait.

Chaeyoung’s breathing stops, her jaw falling open slightly as she looks up at Jeongyeon with wide eyes. She can physically _feel_ Jeongyeon’s hand in her own, cold to the touch but there nonetheless. And a part of her heart is soaring at the fact that she can actually touch the girl she’s been longing to just grab the hand of for a year, but another part is completely thrown for a loop.

“Jeong?”

“Oh my god,” Jeongyeon half whispers, half laughs, running her free hand through her hair as she looks up at Chaeyoung. “It’s you! Oh my god, everything makes sense now!”

“Jeong I have no idea what you’re-“

Chaeyoung’s reply is swiftly cut off by a pair of cold, soft lips pressed against her own. Her initial reaction is to gasp, because for one Jeongyeon’s lips are fucking _cold_ and two, Jeongyeon is _kissing her._

It takes a moment for her brain to catch up, until she finally moves her lips against Jeongyeon’s own, nothing more than a soft, slow kiss to make up for lost time. Jeongyeon smiles slightly into the kiss, pulling away to peck Chaeyoung’s lips once more before muttering, “It’s you.”

“What do you mean, ‘it’s me’?” Chaeyoung asks, her forehead resting gently against Jeongyeon’s own.

“The reason I can leave the apartment, the reason we can touch, don’t you get it?” Jeongyeon says, pulling back slightly to look Chaeyoung in the eyes. “I’m not bound to the apartment anymore, I’m bound to _you._ ”

Chaeyoung finds the situation sweet, that Jeongyeon was somehow so moved that her anchor to this world shifted from the apartment she was murdered in to her, when the realization hits her like a runaway train, slamming into her heart in a way she wasn’t prepared for in any way.

“Jeongyeon..” Chaeyoung says softly, sadly, because as much as she wants to be selfish, she knows she can’t do that to the girl in front of her. “Jeongyeon it sounds like you’re saying that _I’m_ the reason you’re stuck between life and death now.”

Jeongyeon pauses, and Chaeyoung can tell the exact moment that the realization hits her as well but the way her eyes flicker in understanding. “Jeongyeon you mean so much more to me than words can possibly explain, and despite the fact that I want nothing more than to ignore the truth and just kiss you again and again, I can’t be the reason you’re trapped here. I..” Chaeyoung trails off, swallowing down the tears threatening to spill from her eyes.

“I love you too much to do that to you.”

Jeongyeon stares at her dumbly for a few moments, tears welling in her eyes a small smile makes its way onto her lips. Wordlessly, she leans forward, slowly enough for Chaeyoung to pull away if she wants, and gives her the softest kiss Chaeyoung’s ever had the pleasure of receiving in her life. When the pull away, Jeongyeon mutters quietly against her lips, “I love you too, so _so_ much.”

A burst of light and sound emits from beside them, nearly blinding Chaeyoung as she shields her eyes in shock. She looks through squinted eyes at Jeongyeon, who’s staring blatantly into the blinding white light, and it hits Chaeyoung that this is it. This is Jeongyeon’s time to move on.

Jeongyeon must know it too, because she turns to Chaeyoung with frantic eyes, shaking her head over and over again as she shouts over the vacuum of noise, “I’m not ready!”

“Yes you are!” Chaeyoung shouts back, reaching to grab Jeongyeon’s hand to support the older girl, running her hands comfortingly over her knuckles. “You’re not staying here one more minute just because of me!”

“But I love you!” Jeongyeon nearly cries in response, and Chaeyoung lets the tears fall freely at her words. She pulls Jeongyeon closer by the hand, using her other hand to cup the older girl’s neck and kiss her with all of the emotion she can possibly muster, pouring every ‘thank you’ and ‘I love you’ that she’s kept hidden inside of herself over the last year and praying that Jeongyeon understands.

“I love you too, but you deserve peace. You deserve to move on,” Chaeyoung says against her lips, just barely able to hear her own voice over the sound emitting from the blinding light in the center of the living room. Chaeyoung can taste both of their tears as Jeongyeon kisses her again and again, muttering ‘I’m sorry’s and ‘I love you’s into every kiss.

“Promise me you’ll be okay, and that you’ll release a song!” Jeongyeon shouts as she stands, moving closer to the light but keeping her eyes trained on Chaeyoung. The shorter girl lets out a wet laugh as she nods, smiling softly at the girl she loves while Jeongyeon mirrors that smile, the glimmer in her eyes filling Chaeyoung’s heart with joy. Just before Jeongyeon walks into the light, Chaeyoung jumps onto her feet and grabs Jeongyeon by the wrist, pulling her in for one last kiss.

“Don’t forget about me,” she whispers between tears.

“I’ll always be watching over you,” Jeongyeon says with such conviction, tucking a loose strand of short hair behind Chaeyoung’s ear with such tender affection that Chaeyoung can’t help but wrap her arms around Jeongyeon’s waist and hug her tighter than she’s ever hugged anyone before.

“Goodbye Jeongyeon,” Chaeyoung smiles despite the tears falling down her face, stepping back to let Jeongyeon pass from this world to finally be at peace.

“Goodbye Chaeyoung,” Jeongyeon smiles, keeps her eyes locked with Chaeyoung’s as she walks into the light, as she disappears and takes the light with her. It happens in the blink of an eye, and suddenly Chaeyoung is alone in the center of her apartment. Five minutes of pure silence passes, Chaeyoung trying to decipher everything that’s happened in the last hour, before it all hits her at once.

She cries herself to sleep, on that night and for many nights to come.

 

—————

**(Listen to Thinking Bout You by Ariana Grande)**

 

Chaeyoung takes in a deep breath, reveling in the fresh air around her as she stands outside of a building in the center of town. The sky is clear, the sun is beating on her skin, the birds are singing, traffic is moving. Life is as it has always been; constantly moving. Yet Chaeyoung still feels rooted in place sometimes, like she can’t find it in her to take that step forward.

It’s been getting easier; waking up alone, watching TV alone, being _alone,_ but there are times Chaeyoung catches herself turning to speak to someone that isn’t there. Catches herself staring at the polaroid on her fridge longer than usual. Catches herself crying into her pillow late at night.

But she made a promise that she would be okay, that she would find it in her to take that step, to become something more; to become _herself_. Exhaling slowly, she grabs the strap of her backpack and walks into the building before her, smiling at the receptionist as she walks down the hallways towards the last room on the left.

Pushing the door open, she’s greeted with warm eyes and a familiar smile beckoning her to sit down beside her. Chaeyoung returns the smile in full, finding that surrounding herself with friends makes it easier to push forward. Especially when those friends are there to help you achieve your goals.

“Nayeon will be here in a couple minutes, she went down the block to get us some coffees,” Jihyo says, her voice somehow embodying the smile on her face. Chaeyoung nods in agreement, setting her backpack on the ground and pulling her notebook out of the largest pocket. She flips through the pages, littered with doodles and half-written poems until she finds the page she’s been staring at for the better part of a month.

“Any progress on what you’ve written?” Jihyo asks curiously, and Chaeyoung nods once again as she presses the notebook into Jihyo’s eager hands. Jihyo smiles before schooling her face reading over the page. With each passing second, the smile returns, growing as she reads each line, until she finishes and looks up at Chaeyoung with watery eyes.

“This is incredible,” Jihyo almost whispers, and Chaeyoung is about to thank her when the door behind them is opened once again, Nayeon stepping in with a warm smile and three coffees in hand.

“Hey babe,” Nayeon leans down and presses a kiss to Jihyo’s lips, giggling softly into the kiss before setting the coffees down on the nearby table. She rubs Chaeyoung’s head playfully, messing up the structure of her steadily growing locks and earning a pout from the youngest girl. “Don’t pout at me, your pout is almost as powerful as my wife’s.”

Nayeon is about to walk back to the table for her coffee when she sees the notebook in Jihyo’s hand, eyebrows raising in excitement. “You finished it?” She asks Chaeyoung, and the shortest girl nods while Jihyo hands the notebook to Nayeon, the oldest girl reading over the page with rapt attention.

“I really like this line here; ‘I don’t have you here with me but at least I have the memory’,” Nayeon smiles softly, her eyes watering slightly just as Jihyo’s did. Chaeyoung blushes softly as she remembers when she wrote that line, staring at the pile of books she’s refused to move in her living room. “You’ve got incredible talent, kid. I can see why she wanted you to do this so badly.”

“I promised her I would at least try,” Chaeyoung finally speaks for the first time, and Nayeon and Jihyo nod in understanding because they know exactly who she’s talking about without even having to ask.

“Well, I finished the instrumental production yesterday and Nayeon is here to mix your vocals. Are you ready?” Jihyo asks, a reassuring smile on her face as she addresses Chaeyoung. The shorter girl smiles timidly as she nods, standing and walking into the vocal booth. 

As she places the headphones over her ears and waits for Jihyo’s voice to filter through and prepare the microphone levels, she lets her thoughts wander. The lyrics in front of her are a clear tribute, and she knows that creating this song will help her move on, but she knows she’ll never forget her. Never forget her shaggy hair, her hazy eyes, her wide smile, her laughter.

Her touch, her lips, her love.

She releases a shaky breath, blinking back the moisture building in her eyes. Chaeyoung knows she’s ready to do this, but no matter how much time has passed it still doesn’t make it any easier. Her fingers traces over the lyrics in front of her, reading them over one last time to make sure they’re correct, when she feels something on her shoulder.

It’s almost like a breath of wind, which she knows is impossible because the vocal both is air tight and has no extensive air flow in it as to not disturb the microphone’s sensitivity. But she feels it, brush across her shoulder and send a slight shiver down her spine. In that very moment, Chaeyoung knows it’s her, still watching over her despite having moved on from this earth. In that very moment, Chaeyoung laughs, because her heart feels lighter than it has in six months.

“You ready to go, Chaeng?” Nayeon’s voice filters through the headphones, and Chaeyoung sniffles once, wiping the single tear that had managed to slip out of her eye, before chuckling slightly.

“Yeah, I’m ready,” Chaeyoung says with a smile. With Nayeon’s cue, Chaeyoung takes a deep breath and smiles, letting the memories wash over her in a pleasant manner as she thinks of her. Of her first love. Of Jeongyeon.

And she sings.

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you all so so much for reading! I really hope you enjoyed this as much as I enjoyed writing it. Yes the song Chaeyoung writes at the end is Thinking Bout You by Ariana Grande because it seemed perfectly fitting haha.
> 
> Another major thanks to nojamdoodles on twitter for the idea! Follow me @ tigermochaeyu on twitter and have an awesome day!


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